The Future of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (1993) / Chapter Skim
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8 MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT
8 MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT
Pages 227-244
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From page 227... ...
In this chapter we review the current management structure for SIPP at the Census Bureau, including the channels through which feedback from users and others outside the SIPP program is sought. Such feedback is essential to keep a survey program oriented to the concerns and needs of its users and also up to date with the latest improvements in survey design and methods.
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From page 228... ...
Outside the Demographic Directorate, the Field Division manages the interviewing staff, while the Center for Survey Methods Research and Statistical Research Division contribute to methodological research. Data User Services Division (DUSD)
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From page 230... ...
Some of the staff involved with SIPP work solely on the SIPP program-for example, the staff in the DSD income surveys branch and the DSMD SIPP branch.2 However, SIPP analysts in HHES and POP typically have other responsibilities as well-for example, analyzing data from the decennial census and supplements to the CPS. Initially, POP included several staff with a strong focus on SIPP who also served as contact points for questions and problems from outside users and who initiated research and development projects for SIPP.
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From page 231... ...
The basic decentralized staff organization for SIPP and other Census Bureau surveys follows a widely accepted model. Many agencies and firms that conduct surveys organize their staffs by function for example, with the field staff in one division, the data processing staff in another, the survey and sample design people in another, and so on.
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From page 232... ...
for the Health Interview Survey, or the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the Schools and Staffing Survey sets the survey goals and content, exercises authority over the budget, has substantial input on design issues, analyzes and evaluates the data, prepares publications and microdata products, and provides support services and liaison to users.
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From page 233... ...
Moreover, it is awkward to have a Bureau associate director who is acting, in effect, as the principal investigator or project director for SIPP, given the general management responsibilities of this position for all of the Census Bureau's demographic surveys and programs.4 Recommendation: A Different Approach The panel considered alternative management arrangements for SIPP. One model would be to lodge the sponsorship with another agency and so malice SIPP like the other household surveys conducted by the Census Bureau.
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From page 234... ...
The project director should be someone who combines considerable substantive policy analysis or research experience on such topics as the distribution of income, poverty, and the dynamics of program participation with a strong background in management of complex projects involving original data collection. Finally, the project director needs to have sufficient resources for an analysis staff that is large enough to fulfill the Census Bureau's leadership 50ne possibility would be for the Bureau to set up the equivalent of a "National Center for Income Statistics" within the Census Bureau, headed by a senior person reporting to the deputy director.
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From page 235... ...
Recommendation 8-1: To be as effective as possible in carrying out its responsibilities to produce timely, comprehensive, relevant, high-quality, and analytically appropriate statistics on income and program participation, the Census Bureau should establish a senior-level position of project director for the Bureau's income surveys, SIPP and the March CPS income supplement. That position should include full management and budgetary authority for the income statistics program and sufficient resources to obtain the level of analysis staff that is needed to provide substantive guidance to the program, prepare reports, conduct analyses, and evaluate analytical concepts and methods.
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From page 236... ...
Outside Input: Past Experience The Census Bureau has sought advice on SIPP from federal agency users, academic researchers, survey methodologists, and experts in data access and use of microdata products.7 Federal Agency Users The Census Bureau has used several mechanisms to obtain input on the content and other aspects of SIPP from the perspective of federal agencies that use SIPP data for policy analysis and research. A principal vehicle for input has been an interagency committee, chaired by the Statistical Policy Office of the U.S.
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From page 237... ...
This situation was due in part to constrained resources and other problems affecting the statistical coordination function within OMB and in part to a narrow perspective on the part of the Census Bureau of the committee's role. The Bureau has viewed the OMB committee as having a primary role in specifying the content of the variable topical modules in SIPP that are designed to respond to agency needs for data on emerging policy concerns, but as having a more advisory role with regard to the content of the core and fixed topical modules (e.g., on assets)
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From page 238... ...
The group has developed good working relationships with Census Bureau staff and has helped guide priorities for the SIPP methodological research and evaluation program. Experts in Data Access and Use of Microdata Products Problems with data files and documentation surfaced early on in the SIPP program.
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From page 239... ...
The APDU committee, which includes data librarians, microdata users, and systems analysts, along with key Census Bureau data processing and user services staff, first met in January 1989 and has since met once or twice a year. The APDU effort also involves publication of a supplement to the APDU newsletter, mailed to everyone on the Census Bureau's list of inquirers about SIPP, that provides minutes of the APDU committee meetings, notices of documentation and data file changes, and other articles of interest to SIPP users.
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From page 240... ...
The ASA/SRM group is largely made up of survey methodologists who are not themselves data users and hence have no particular interest in steering SIPP in any particular direction The group's members and the Census Bureau methodological staff have been able to develop a collegial working relationship built around a common goal of finding ways to improve the quality of the SIPP data. Other SIPP advisory groups have had somewhat less success in developing strong working relationships with the Census Bureau.
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From page 241... ...
Broadly speaking, the Census Bureau needs to obtain two kinds of input for SIPP on a continuing basis: advice from policy analysts, researchers, and other users on issues of goals, direction, overall design, and content; and advice from technical experts on matters related to survey methodology, analysis, and data products and dissemination. In addition, as noted in other chapters, the Bureau needs mechanisms to ensure that all of the staff analysts, survey methodologists, and operations and data processing people have opportunities for regular in-service training to update their skills and knowledge as well as to learn from outside peers.
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From page 242... ...
It could be very useful to organize an advisory group of nonfederal agency users, on the model of the SSRC committee, that could coordinate input from researchers about priorities for topical modules and provide other guidance about the content and direction of SIPP. It could also be useful, as an added or alternative means of obtaining input, to organize periodic conferences to receive advice and feedback; such conferences could also feature research uses of SIPP.9 Whatever the means chosen, we urge the Census Bureau to be very clear about the type and extent of advice that is being sought (and to provide sufficient time for thoughtful input)
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From page 243... ...
conceptual and analytical issues in the development of appropriate income and program statistics from complex longitudinal data; and (3) microdata products, documentation, and means of data access.
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